The Challenge of Remembrance
Unfortunately the installation has been seized upon by Left and Right members of the press, politics and even Frankie Boyle as a vehicle to push their own skewed political beliefs (Nigel Farage) or to decry the sea of red as some sort of jingoistic celebration of war by the Guardian, Independent et al.
Memorialisation was a very private affair before the First World War, but the sheer loss of life and effect on communities meant the 'stiff upper lip' of old was difficult to maintain. A culture of shared remembrance resulted from this, with Remembrance Sunday now a fixture in the calendar.
Last Sunday, I saw a programme in which the members of the panel from a broad range of backgrounds and beliefs debated how we should remember those who have died in conflict, fighting for their country. The Left wing press seem to see this as a call to arms, to revisit the raping and pillaging of the British Empire at its worst.
It may be unpalatable to some, but there will never be everlasting peace. Genghis Khan slaughtering millions didn't result in peace. There will always be somebody with evil intent, to wipe out a race, grab an area of land or impart their religion or ideology on others. We tend to see the Great War as a tragedy, an unavoidable war which caused the Second World War, and if the pompous Kaiser and his cousins in London and St. Petersburg weren't so blood-thirsty, millions of normal working people would have been saved.
The Great War was a product of its era. Germany wanted the land expansion and the mastery of Europe its British and French cousins had once enjoyed. Unfortunately, this came at a time when sabre was being exchanged for machine gun and horse for tank. The results would inevitably lead to bloodshed, unseen on such a scale before. The technology of the time along with the Victorian principles of the Generals meant systematic slaughter was inevitable.
It may make Jonathan Jones squirm, writer of the Guardian's latest attempt at shock journalism ( http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/29/guardian-poppies-jonathan-jones_n_6068216.html ), but many British soldiers, French poilus and German Feldgraus felt compelled to fight for their countries. Overwhelmingly, the reason people joined and fought was for their friends and their family. Britions saw an expanding Germany as a threat to their way of life in 1914 and wanted to stop it.
Each of those 888,246 represents a life. In this instance, a British life. But rather than decry the installation as a jingoistic memorial, we should be thankful that each of those people answered the call to arms. They were people of their time. They worked in mills and pits. They liked music hall and opera. They liked a pint of mild or porter in the pub. Some were religious. Some weren't. Some agreed with the war, some didn't.
They weren't hoodwinked into war. The lists of casualties in the papers, the people wearing armbands in the village, the people sobbing uncontrollably; the awfulness of war in all its rotten facets was plain to see. In 1916, the Battle of the Somme, a 'no holds barred' film about the battle which had taken place earlier that year was famously uncensored. The happy faces of Tommies singing as they march off to war tempered by the dull expressions of the stretcher bearers and the lifeless bodies of men hanging on barbed wire.
In battle, soldiers fight for their mates. Read every Victoria Cross citation, from 1857 onwards. Stan Hollis running suicidally at a bunker with only a Sten Gun for company on D-Day, so his friends weren't mown down by the murderous machine gun fire. Leslie Manser battling with his doomed Avro Manchester in 1942 to make sure his mates could bale out before he went down with the burning aircraft. Johnson Beharry in Iraq over 70 years later, badly wounded, but pulling his mates out of burning vehicles. Whatever your view of war, you must support friendship, and in the darkest depths of trench warfare, friendship is all that was left for many.
The famous Kitchener Battalions were formed from men from the same towns. Friends who wanted to fight together; The Grimsby Chums, The Barnsley Pals and the Accrington Pals who lost 83% casualties on the morning of the Battle of the Somme. 235 of those ceramic poppies have been placed in the ground for the men of Sheffield, Leeds, Barnsley and Bradford. They joined together, they trained together, they laughed and sang together. They died together.
Wilfred Owen was a great opponent of the war by 1918. He was in Craiglockart hospital. He didn't have to return, but he felt a great need to fight for his men and his friends. He died 7 days before the end of the war, 96 years ago today. He didn't die Pro Patria, but for his friends.
Each of those poppies represents a man, cut down, so often, in their prime. A man who lived, loved and laughed with his friends. A man who felt he was making the right decision at that time. Who are we to disagree and dissect how we think Britain should remember the war dead?
Poppies
'In Flanders fields, the Poppies blow', the words of John McCrae, a Canadian soldier who witnessed the horrors of mechanised warfare. He wouldn't see the end of the war, dying from pneumonia in January 1918, but the fields of Northern France and Belgium would return to fallow after four long years of slaughter. When the Imperial War Grave Commission (Now Commonwealth WGC) started the long process of finding and burying the missing after the war, the workers noted the poppies blowing in the breeze, as McCrae had witnessed. Many of the workers were ex-soldiers and the whisper of scarlet flowers swaying in the breeze contrasted with the scream of shellfire and the rattle of machine gun. The poppy became a symbol of remembrance for those who had fought. It never sought to glorify the war. It was a symbol of reconciliation, how a landscape so scarred by conflict could return to display such natural beauty and peace.
Once again the poppy has been dragged into the national debate about commemoration. Television stations demanding everyone seen or heard from must be wearing a poppy. Overseas guests on talk shows without the first clue what the poppy represents and people who don't wear one having to release a statement as to why (whilst dropping all the great work they do for other charities in the same press release: http://www.itv.com/news/2014-10-25/itv-news-presenter-charlene-white-why-i-dont-wear-a-poppy/).
People shouldn't be forced into wearing a poppy. If people don't want to because they don't agree, for whatever reason, fine. The fact people are attacked for bearing a chest sans poppy makes you ask why we fought against Nazi tyranny for 6 years.
The debate rages each year and has intensified with the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Great War. Debate is good, but let us never lose sight of the fact that 100 years ago, men were dying in foreign fields, fighting for their own beliefs and we should never forget that they were willing to lay down their lives for their cause.
